The present application generally relates to autonomous driverless vehicles and, more particularly, to a computer-implemented methods and systems for controlling operation of such vehicles upon detection of hazards.
Autonomous vehicles operating in unconstrained or lightly constrained environments are typically outfitted with systems that detect obstacles or other environmental hazards in the vicinity of the vehicle. Such hazards may include, e.g., the unexpected presence of a human, animal, or another vehicle. When such a hazard is detected, the autonomous vehicle will alter its behavior to avoid the hazard, either changing course or halting its movement altogether.
Such safety sensing systems are imperfect, sometimes failing to detect hazards (a false negative event) or signaling a hazard that does not actually exist (a false positive event). The present application is directed to methods and systems for mitigating the impact of false positive events. The methods and systems enable a remote operator to assess whether or not a safety event is a false positive event and, if so, to command the vehicle to ignore it and continue its operation.